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How to access a Quicken Subscription file from both accounts/desktops on one computer.

mackim

My wife and I share an iMac M1. I manage our Quicken subscription and am able to access it from my iPhone and iPad as well. I have not found a way for my wife to open our joint Quicken file and work with it on her own desktop, other than to use Quicken Web. Is there a way she can use the Quicken App and access our common data?

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jacobs

@RickO said: Going forward, when either of you wants to work with Quicken, you would log out of your personal mac user account and log into the mac Quicken user account.

It's actually easier than that. 😀 You don't need to log out of your User account; you just do a Fast Switch to the third (Quicken) User account. you can switch back and forth between your regular User account and the Quicken one in just a couple of seconds this way.

@mackim I feel I should also insert the conventional wisdom caveats about syncing your data to Quicken's cloud servers in order to use the Web interface and/or mobile app. This functionality works well and as designed for many people without problems. But there are known to be syncing issues on occasion, which result in some data corruption or loss. Most common is that some existing categorization is lost on certain transactions, or some recently-entered transactions disappear. I don't know if Quicken ever acknowledges these issues, because they're hard to pin down. I can only say that as someone who spends a lot of time in this forum, I've read more than enough problem reports from users to convince me personally to leave Sync turned off and forego the convenience of using the Web interface when traveling or the mobile interface when away from my desktop computer. (These sync problems are apparently worse if you're using Quicken Windows, from what I've read.) I think most of the longtime SuperUsers here choose to not allow their desktop data to be synced to the cloud to avoid potential data issues. I'm not saying you absolutely shouldn't use Quicken Cloud; I'm just making you aware that this is a potential weak point in the Quicken ecosystem that you should be aware of.

RickO

I'm glad @jacobs brought that up. I too have had issues with Sync. I've left it turned off ever since.

All comments

Jon

If you're both using the same Mac, you could try putting your Quicken file in the /Users/Shared folder; I've never experimented with that but it sounds like you'd have to change the permissions on the file in order for both of you to have read/write access:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-files-with-others-who-use-your-mac-mchlp1122/mac

You can't put the file on iCloud or other similar cloud storage services, or in locations on your Mac that are synced to iCloud; it will eventually become corrupted.

RickO

I don't recommend keeping your file in Users > Shared because you can run into the same kind of file-corrupting permissions errors as when storing the file in the cloud. In fact, you may find that Quicken will refuse to open the file from one of the user accounts even though the permissions seem to be set properly.

Here's what I do recommend: Create a third mac user account on the iMac with a name like "Quicken". Right click on the Quicken file in your account and Compress it. Take the resulting .zip file and move it to the new mac user account (using a cloud service or thumb drive, etc.) Then log into the new Quicken user account and double click the .zip file to decompress it. Going forward, when either of you wants to work with Quicken, you would log out of your personal mac user account and log into the mac Quicken user account. I realize this is a bit of a pain, but it is probably the safest way to proceed.

mackim

Thanks, RickO. I assumed that our data was kept in the cloud since we can access it from our other devices as well as on the Web App. I just set up my wife’s Mac user account for web access, so perhaps that will do. She can sign into my desktop any time, so that would be easier than creating a third account. It sounds like we’ve gone as far as we can go. Thanks for your help and info.

RickO

Only some of your data is in the cloud. The Quicken mobile and web apps are only companion apps to the Quicken Desktop file on your computer. They do not contain all the data and importantly, they cannot be used to restore a corrupt, lost or damaged desktop file.

I think you're on the right track. With your wife having access to (some of) the data via the Quicken Web app (in Safari), she'll probably be able to do most of what she needs to do (like entering and viewing transactions) from there. If she needs to use functions that only exist in the Quicken Classic app on the Mac, then she can log into your mac user account. That's the best of both worlds and should serve you well.

Here's some info on some of the limitations of Quicken on the Web:

https://www.quicken.com/support/quicken-web-frequently-asked-questions/

jacobs

@RickO said: Going forward, when either of you wants to work with Quicken, you would log out of your personal mac user account and log into the mac Quicken user account.

mackim

Thanks for the warning. I have had, and am having issues with syncing the desktop with my iPad. This could be the reason.

RickO

I'm glad @jacobs brought that up. I too have had issues with Sync. I've left it turned off ever since.

mackim

It sounds like this is something Quicken really needs to fix. It doesn’t sound like rocket science.

jacobs

It sounds like this is something Quicken really needs to fix. It doesn’t sound like rocket science.

I agree that they should get to the bottom of the sync problems and fix them. But these issues have been around for years. It's never been clear to me to what extent the Quicken teams are aware of the issues. And well it may not be rocket science, it's a lot more complicated than anyone might think. First, it involves three different development and testing teams at Quicken (Mac, Windows and Cloud). Second there's a lot of complexity in what data lives in the Cloud, because data is coming from both your desktop data file as well as from direct downloads from financial institutions to the Cloud. The Cloud process needs to keep track of transactions you've previously downloaded and deleted or edited on the desktop so your edits prevail. It needs to apply rules you've created on your desktop so that transactions downloaded from a financial institution to your Cloud file look correct in the mobile app or web browser without out downloading to your local file. If you edit transaction data in your desktop file offline and your Cloud file online, it needs to determine which edit prevails. And so on… not rocket science, but plenty complex. 😉

mackim

Point taken. I'll be more patient.